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15 Aug 14. A Chinese businessman has been indicted in California on charges he hacked the computer systems of Boeing Co and other U.S. defense contractors and stole confidential plans for military aircraft, federal prosecutors said on Friday. According to the indictment in federal court in Los Angeles, Su Bin traveled to the United States at least 10 times between 2008 and 2014 and worked with two unidentified co-conspirators based in China to steal the data. Prosecutors said the trio stole plans relating to the C-17 military transport plane and F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, and attempted to sell them to Chinese companies. Su is charged with unauthorized computer access, stealing trade secrets and violating federal laws that require a license from the U.S. State Department to export defense-related technical data. He faces up to 30 years in prison. Su was arrested in June in Canada, where he was attempting to establish residency, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Court documents did not list an attorney for Su. U.S. officials have identified industrial spying as a significant and growing threat. Federal prosecutors in May charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into American companies to steal trade secrets. China, angered by those allegations, shut down a bilateral working group on cybersecurity. The case is USA v. Su Bin, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. cr-14-0131. (Source: Reuters)
13 Aug 14. Air Force Academy unveils new network security major.
As cyber operations continue to become an increasingly important part of the military, the services are looking for ways to train its members in the art of cyber warfare. The Air Force Academy has recently announced the creation of a new computer network security major designed to help cadets gain a better understanding of the cyberspace domain and the Air Force’s cyber strategies. The major is being created despite the fact that the academy has been cutting down on available areas of study. Earlier this year, the Air Force announced that the academy would be eliminating 10 academic majors and cut three academic courses from graduation requirements as a result of the fiscal 2015 budget.
“The Air Force Academy is committed to producing highly qualified officers to serve in cyber career fields,” Dr. Martin Carlisle, head of the academy’s Computer Science Department, said in an Air Force release. “This is a time when the academy is reducing majors, which shows how important we think this mission field is.”
In addition to the newly created major, the Air Force Academy currently offers disciplinary majors in computer engineering and computer science. New classes are being created for the new computer network security major, which will feature a mix of technical and qualitative classes.
Cadets will take courses that will teach them reverse software engineering and the analysis of malware, viruses and other malicious codes. Meanwhile, another course would feature computer forensics, which involves tracing attacks, figuring out how an attack was carried out, and gathering evidence. The new major also will feature classes on strategy, political science and law. The academy’s curriculum is set up in a way that would allow cadets interested in the major to decide midway through their academic careers. Cadets can use the time to choose which of the three computer science majors is best for them, said Carlisle. (Source: Defense Systems)
15 Aug 14. New hacking scenario emerges: Wi-Fi signal-sniffing drones. The next major network security threat could come from the sky, in the form of drones equipped with video cameras and the ability to sniff out mobile devices and their unique identifiers, perhaps even establishing rogue network access points in the sky that could be used to hack sensitiv